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Verstappen: 'Right choice' to give Kvyat new shot in 2019

Max Verstappen says he backs Daniil Kvyat to succeed, now that the young Russian has been given another chance to show what he can do in Formula 1.

"I think it's the right choice," Verstappen said this week.

Kvyat has had a roller coaster ride unprecedented in recent years in the sport. The 24-year-old won the GP3 Series title in 2013 and was fast-tracked into F1 with the Toro Rosso team the following season.

After just 12 months, he was promoted to the senior Red Bull squad alongside Daniel Ricciardo. But his performance did not live up to the team's demanding expectations, and he was sent back to Toro Rosso four races into 2016.

That was done as a straight swap between Kvyat and rising star Verstappen, who has since gone on to take four wins with Red Bull.

Kvyat meanwhile failed to recover his equilibrium. He was eventually terminated by the Red Bull driver development programme after the 2017 United States Grand Prix.

Horner: Painful demotion in 2016 took its toll on Kvyat

This season Kvyat has been with Ferrari as a test driver, and he has now been given an unexpected second chance at Toro Rosso for 2019.

Verstappen said it was a good call by the team, and said he expected Kvyat to be in a better position to prove himself.

"He has experience, he knows the teams and they know him," he told the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

"That's all very useful next year, when Toro Rosso will have some more Red Bull parts," Verstappen added.

"I would not know who else should be there," the Dutchman continued. "There's no one in the Red Bull programme with enough license points.

"Daniil has not driven for a while, but I think it's possible he has still developed as a driver."

Toro Rosso is yet to confirm who will be driving alongside Kvyat next year. Preferred candidate Dan Ticktum definitely won't have enough FIA superlicence points to be eligible for a seat.

That leaves the team looking at the likes of Pascal Wehrlein, Alexander Albon, Nyck de Vries or possibly retaining Brendon Hartley for a second season.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.